COMPANY OWNER CHARGED IN THEFT OF ANCIENT TIMBER

A lumber-company owner has been charged with stealing ancient timber from the bottom of Lake Washington. John Tortorelli, president of Western Wood Lumber, is accused of harvesting about $165,000 worth of sunken logs and old-growth trees, some of which could be 3,000 years old, in 1991 and 1992. Prosecutors accused Tortorelli of taking trees from old-growth forest sites on the lakebed, which is owned by the state. The forests tumbled into the lake during a landslide between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, according to prosecutor Lynn Prunhuber. The wood has been preserved because the oxygen content is extremely low in the deep lakebed. Prosecutors said Tortorelli used a crane to pull the trees out of the lake. He faces 22 charges and could be sentenced to 10 years in prison if convicted.